Nov. 9, 2009 - Thoughts On Love - Posted in Stuff God Has Taught Me

Sep. 20, 2009 - What Completes You? - Posted in Stuff God Has Taught Me

Who doesn’t like a good love song? I know that I do, in fact I LOVE a good love song! One where the lyrics are just right and make your heart pound as you think of your future love story. One with words like "You know when the sun forgets to shine I’ll be there to hold you through the night" (Jonas Brothers) or "Do you ever think when you’re all alone of all that we could be, where this thing could go?" (David Archuleta) or even "If you could see that I’m the one who understands you; been here all along, so why can’t you see you belong with me?" (Taylor Swift). Yes, we all love good love songs.

But something has struck me lately. A question that a few months ago I would have thought myself crazy for asking.

Why?

Why is every popular song nowadays is about romantic love? Why is every other thought in the teenage mind is about romantic love? Why do we hold this concept so high in our minds and in our hearts?

Now, you probably think I’m crazy for asking that. You’re thinking something like, "Well, SeaChel, it’s like this: IT’S ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLE THINGS GOD HAS CREATED! He made Adam and Eve, so obviously He wants us to fall in love with someone someday and have a romantic relationship. What is wrong with you, SeaChel???"

Well, I’m not here to tell you that romantic love is wrong. Far from it! I really want to experience romantic love someday! I really want to get married someday! There is nothing wrong with the concept, in fact it’s quite beautiful! But why is this never far from our teenage (or close to teenage) minds?

Recently I developed a crush on a guy in my Youth Group. And what I always do when this happens to me is I start reading books like "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" (Joshua Harris) so as to strengthen my convictions in the area of romantic love in the teenage years (I’m not really going to go into that in this post, but here’s the short story: I believe that one should not enter into a romantic relationship until he/she is ready for marriage). So I read three books on the subject and then started into a fourth one, called "Boy Meets Girl, Saying Hello To Courtship" (Joshua Harris).

The first two chapters of this book were devoted to knowing when you’re ready for a relationship and knowing if you have the right motives for said relationship. Well, long story short, I realized I didn’t have the right motives. In fact, I realized that I had a problem. Idolatry.

"Now wait, SeaChel", I can hear you think (yes, I am telepathic), "You read a book about guy/girl relationships and you learned that you’ve been worshiping an idol?" Sounds weird, huh? Well, I haven’t bowed down to a false god, or sung the praises of one, so don’t worry. But what does idolatry mean, exactly? Does it just mean bowing down to or worshiping an idol? I think it means more.

To me, idolatry means raising someone or something up to a place that belongs to God. And that’s what God convicted me of as I read those two chapters. See, I’ve always thought of romantic love as something that would fill a hole inside of me, something that would make me complete. But only God can ever truly fill the void inside a person. Yet I had set aside a small part of that hole to be filled by my future husband, not God. That’s where I slipped into idolatry.

Again, I’m not here to tell you that guy/girl relationships are bad (because they aren’t!) or that marriage isn’t an incredible, wonderful gift from God to people (because it is!). However, a relationship cannot be what makes us feel complete! We cannot be thinking "Once I find the perfect person, then I will truly be whole!" No, God is the only One who can complete us! And if we raise a relationship to that place in our hearts, then it has become an idol in our lives.

Slowly, God has been helping me to take my hopes and dreams for a future relationship down off the pedestal I’ve placed it on. It’s not easy, I still have crushes and I still stumble in this area, but it is worth it! Only when you take out your false idols can God truly fill those holes! God wants so desperately to be the One who will truly complete you. Will you let Him be that one?

"Marriage is not the completion of two people. Rather, marriage is the joining of two people who are already complete in God into one who is complete in God."


~SeaChel

Aug. 26, 2009 - True Humility - Posted in Stuff God Has Taught Me

Why is it that when I have all the time in the world I don’t post? Why is it that I’ve sat around at the computer for the past week, been on HSB to post comments, and I still don’t post? *hits head against wall*

Well, I’ve decided that my posts on this blog are going to change a bit. See, I’ve always posted uber-long blog entries about trips and stuff like that, but I doubt many people like reading uber-long posts about stuff that happened to me (I know that I wouldn’t want to read it, at least not the whole thing!). So now I’m going to try something kinda new for me. I’m going to post shorter entries about things that are important to me, whether it’s about music, thoughts I’ve been having, or stuff that God has been teaching me. So, without further ado, here’s my first real post in months:

On Training Camp (the first rafting camp of the year, when we all train ourselves to be ready for the next three camps) we studied the book of 1st Timothy, because that particular book of the Bible has a ton of instructions and advise for being a leader (as we were going to be over the rest of the summer). In chapter 3 there is a list a requirements for leaders in the church, and one of them was humility. As I was reading through the chapter I wrote down all of the characteristics that I felt I needed to work on, and humility wasn’t one of them. See, I’ve always tried to be humble, and I felt like I’d been doing a pretty good job at it. But that night in Bible Study humility came up and my youth leader started talking about what "fake humility" looks like, and it sounded an awful lot like what I’d called humility in my life.

Something I really don’t like in people is arrogance, so I’d worked hard to be someone who didn’t seem arrogant in the slightest. So whenever I was complimented on something I’d done, I would say something like "Thanks, but it’s really not that great" or "I’m not the best…". But according to my youth leader, this was fake humility. Why? This seems pretty humble to me!

Well first, what are my motives for saying these things? I’m trying to appear humble, I’m saying these things so that people will think "She’s so humble!" Is that really a humble motive? Nope, not really. Second, Who give us all our talents? (yes, the "w" in "Who" is capitalized for a reason!) God did! God uses the gifts He gave us so that He can work through us! So when we use our talents and do well and then we say "It’s really not all that great", who are we belittling? God. We’re basically saying "No this isn’t great. God didn’t do very well when He gave me this gift" or "God isn’t working very well through me." So no, belittling what we’ve done isn’t true humility, nor is it pleasing to God!

So what is true humility? Again, Who gave us all our talents? God did! So who deserves the praise? He does! So when someone compliments you for something you’ve done, turn their eyes to the One who gave you your gifts! Now, am I perfect at this? No, not even close! But I’m working on it, and you can too!


~SeaChel